The Democratic Republic of the Congo have no plans to alter their World Cup preparations despite a warning from the United States that the national team must isolate for 21 days before entering the country due to the Ebola outbreak. US officials have informed Fifa, the DRC team and the Kinshasa government that the squad must maintain a bubble in Belgium, where they are training, to be allowed to travel to Houston on 11 June.
Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House Task Force for the World Cup, told ESPN that the US had made clear to the Congo government the need to maintain the bubble, warning they risked not being able to travel to the United States. “We want to make sure there is nothing that’s going to come in or near our borders,” he said. The DRC squad is exempt from a broader travel ban temporarily barring entry to non-Americans who have been in the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan in the previous 21 days.
A DRC team spokesperson said there was no change to their schedule, which includes friendlies against Denmark on 3 June and Chile six days later. “We have kept our training programme. No player in the squad has come from DRC,” the official said. The entire squad of players are based outside the DRC, mostly in Europe, as is the coach. A planned three-day trip to Kinshasa for a send-off has been cancelled.
The World Health Organization has raised to “very high” the risk of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments, turning into a national outbreak in the DRC. The outbreak has been declared an emergency of international concern, with 82 confirmed cases and seven confirmed deaths in the DRC, alongside almost 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths.
DRC have qualified for the World Cup for only the second time after playing in 1974, when the country was known as Zaire. They plan to be based in Houston during the tournament, where they will face Portugal in their first Group K match on 17 June.
